The overlooked, unaffiliated voters

I am an independent, adamantly unaffiliated voter. And it’s not because I’m too stupid to make a decision.

Folks like myself don’t have a party apparatus behind them (unaffiliated, remember?), so I can’t speak on anyone’s behalf other than my own. But I can’t help thinking that at least a few other “U’s” in Colorado are fed up with the political establishment treating us as though we’re all not paying attention.

The problem is that party apparatchiks, talking heads, and editorial page columnists see the world through a simplistic bipolar lens: liberal or conservative; Republican or Democrat; this end good, that end bad. That’s the mindset, and if you don’t fit, you don’t count. Or worse, they’ll put one of the two labels on you anyway—if you’re not for “us,” then obviously you’re against.

The labels are seductive because they demand neither thought nor fact. The presidential media campaign provides daily examples of that. Last week, a volunteer from one of the presidential campaigns (doesn’t matter which) phoned and asked me, “Who do you think has a better approach for solving the country’s economic problems, the Republicans or the Democrats?”

“I think the best and quickest path to economic recovery is for each of them to stop undermining the other at every turn, and compromise.” The pause at the other end of the line told me that my answer didn’t fit either of the two options that were on her form.

Where is it writ that an individual has to be satisfied with the two political parties we’re presented with? Why is it such a stretch to look at the challenges facing America, to listen to what the right and the left have to say about them, and conclude that neither has a lock on the answers? That’s where I am.

The main reason I remain unaffiliated is that my political party hasn’t been invented yet, at least not in America. Alternatives like the Tea Party and the Green Party aren’t really alternatives. They just take you further down one end or the other of the same narrow ideological continuum. That’s not what I want.

I want a third party that is truly different. I want a party of common sense. I want government to be leaner. I also want government to stay out personal choices, such as whether gay couples can marry.

I want a party that believes markets, fair competition, and entrepreneurial innovation are key to addressing climate change without undue economic disruption. I don’t want a party that would rely on government fiat, nor do I want one that approaches climate change by closing its eyes, clapping noisily, and wishing the problem away by pretending the science isn’t real.

In short, this unaffiliated voter would affiliate with a new common-sense party that is fiscally conservative, socially liberal, pro-market, takes environmental protection seriously, and doesn’t view any of it as contradictory. I have no idea how many other “U’s” feel this way. As I said, the only unaffiliated I can speak for is me.

Above all, I want a third party that doesn’t regard political compromise as a mortal sin. I want a party that, if it were to win some legislative seats, would change the way power is balanced simply by its presence. I’d love to see an end the perpetual two-party struggle for majority tyranny. With three parties, compromise would be the only way the legislative branch could act. That’s what the Founding Fathers had in mind.

Until that party comes about, I will remain unaffiliated. I’ll vote for the Democrats and the Republicans that come closest to my values. And if by chance some get fed up themselves and decide to start a new party, I’ll be there with them.
David Hurlbut is a registered voter living in Golden.

Vincent Carroll is The Denver Post's editorial page editor. He has been writing commentary on politics and public policy in Colorado since 1982 and was originally with the Rocky Mountain News, where he was also editor of the editorial pages until that newspaper gave up the ghost in 2009.

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